Leveling Up: Video Gamers Experience Real World Dangers

When video games stop being games -- when the onscreen targets are real places and the "kills" are actual fatalities -- the effects are anything but virtual. In Leveling Up, the brilliant play by Deborah Zoe Laufer, three twenty-something roommates play video games holed up in a Las Vegas basement, cocksure masters of their digital domains. But when the National Security Agency comes calling, one of them is lured into using his considerable skills to launch actual drones and missiles. Suddenly online battles have real-world consequences. Directed by Hallie Gordon, Leveling Up typifies the theme for Steppenwolf for Young Adult's 2013-2014 season: "When the game turns deadly, how will you play?"